James McAvoy Teases Prof X Return For Dark Phoenix Movie

James McAvoy, young Professor Charles Xavier from the most recent X-Men films posted a pretty certain tease on his instagram yesterday about his return to the franchise.

Not that it was really up for debate, as if the storyline for the next X-Men film is what we all think it is, considering the title is X-Men: Dark Phoenix, then YES Professor X would be around. Anyhow, McAvoy posted this video:

A post shared by James Mcavoy (@jamesmcavoyrealdeal) on Jun 17, 2017 at 4:56am PDT

Showing a buzzing razor with the simple caption “He approaches”, pretty easy to gather this means in no uncertain terms (yet strangely unconfirmed) the return of Professor X to the X team ahead of possible galactic adventures.

The reason this should come as no surprise to X-Men fans of the Dark Phoenix saga storyline is the persistent story that Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain is the forerunner for Shi’Ar Empress Lilandra. The character happens to be one of the few big love interests of ol Charles’ life, and it would stand to reason her appearance in the films would mean his return.

Also returning for the 9th X-film (that’s including the Wolverine movies too) so far are Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan as Scott Summers/Cyclops, Nicholas Hoult as Hank/Beast, Alexandra Shipp as Ororo/Storm, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Kurt/Nightcrawler. It also looks like we’ll get the return of Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mystique and Michael Fassbender as Magneto.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be directed by longtime X-Men producer and writer Simon Kinberg, from a script he’s written. Early reports state the majority of the film will take place in the 1990s, which would fit in with the original comicbooks source material. It also means the series is continuing in decade increments starting with X-Men: First Class taking place during the 1960s, X-Men: Days of Future Past during the 1970s, and X-Men: Apocalypse during the 1980s.

We also know (but may change, who knows) that McAvoy will NOT be appearing in the New Mutants spinoff film that is ramping up production featuring newer members of the X-team.

X-Men: Dark Phoenixreportedly JUST started filming in Montreal, and is set for a November 2018 release date.